The Mindset Mentor - Ep 41 - Are You a Lighthouse or a Tow Boat?

Episode Date: November 23, 2015

In this episode we speak about how many people spend too much time as a tow boat - trying to pull people to safety and using up their own energy in the process. Instead of being a tow boat, it is better to be the lighthouse - to be the best version of ourselves, live our lives to the fullest and shine as an example for others to follow. Want to learn more about Mindset Mentor+? For nearly nine years, the Mindset Mentor Podcast has guided you through life's ups and downs. Now, you can dive even deeper with Mindset Mentor Plus. Turn every podcast lesson into real-world results with detailed worksheets, journaling prompts, and a supportive community of like-minded people. Enjoy monthly live Q&A sessions with me, and all this for less than a dollar a day. If you’re committed to real, lasting change, this is for you.Join here 👉 www.mindsetmentor.com My first book that I’ve ever written is now available. It’s called LEVEL UP and It’s a step-by-step guide to go from where you are now, to where you want to be as fast as possible.📚If you want to order yours today, you can just head over to robdial.com/bookHere are some useful links for you… If you want access to a multitude of life advice, self development tips, and exclusive content daily that will help you improve your life, then you can follow me around the web at these links here:Instagram TikTokFacebookYoutube

Before we dive into today's episode, if you would like a free copy of our motivational ebook called Hack Your Goals, the Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving Success, go to mwfmotivation.com and download it. It's already been downloaded over a thousand times, so go ahead and get your copy now. All right, I'll get you the podcast right now. Welcome to the MWF Motivation Podcast, which I am proud to say has been rated the number one podcast in iTunes new and noteworthy in six different categories, including self-help and business, and is a podcast designed to help you grow into the best version of yourself in 10 to 20 minutes. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we'll take a life topic, break it down, discuss it, and leave you with thoughts to impact your life and mind. My name is Rob Dial, and

the podcast starts now. Welcome to the MWF Motivation Podcast. My name is Rob Dial. And if you are new, welcome to the MWF Motivation Podcast. And please subscribe to us on iTunes, Stitcher, or SoundCloud. And if you're a veteran and you've been with us for a while, you know, please share us with a friend. If you know anybody that could give value for what we have to say. And today we're going to be talking about something that I've heard a little bit about. I've seen some quotes about and it was very intriguing. So I wanted to dive into it and teach it to you guys. And it's the lighthouse versus the towboat. And the lighthouse versus the towboat. So which one are you? So let me give you

an idea. The towboat is the boat that saves all of the other boats. It tries to pull all of the other boats to safety. It spends all of its time, it spends all of its energy trying to pull other boats to where they need to be. And in turn, it tires itself out by helping all of the other boats out and making sure that they're safe. So that's the towboat. The lighthouse on the other side, the lighthouse shines and shows the way to go. And its shining helps make sure that all the other boats stay clear of everything that could get into their way and find a safe path to the destination they need to get to. And although it doesn't physically help the other boats like the towboat, it doesn't pull

them, it doesn't use all of its energy by pulling them over to the direction that they need to go, it helps them the exact same way by doing what it is supposed to do, which is shine. same way by doing what it is supposed to do, which is shine. That's all it's supposed to do is to shine and in turn helps all of the other boats by doing its job. It never moves from where it is. It stays firm and it does what it's supposed to do. It knows its purpose. It does its purpose and it does what it's supposed to do and in turn helps all of the boats that are around it. and it does what it's supposed to do, and in turn helps all of the boats that are around it. So what's the difference between the towboat and between the lighthouse? Well, they both do the exact same thing, which is help other boats to safety and help them stay safe and help them get to the path that they're supposed to go, but each of them do it differently and in different ways.

So let me ask you this. What do I mean by this metaphor? Have you been the towboat lately or have you been the towboat most of your life? Using all of your energy, trying to pull others to where they should go and trying to show them this is the way you should go and pulling them. And have you spent your time and your energy trying to help others steer to the path that they should go to? And if you are the type that's the towboat, it's very noble of you to do so. But what you're going to find out is that everyone makes their own decisions. Everyone makes their own decisions. Going out of your way and using all of your precious time and your

precious energy sometimes is useless because people are going to make their own decisions no matter what, no matter how hard you pull them, no matter how much you try to pull them in one direction. Once you stop pulling or once you're away from them, they're going to make their own decisions and they're going to pull themselves to the way they want to go. And you have to realize this, that sometimes you've been the towboat for so long, the only thing that you can do really is to be a lighthouse, to be the best you, to be the best version of yourself, to do exactly what you're supposed to do with your life, live the best version of your life the best way you possibly can, and shine for everyone else to see. Focus yourself on being the example of what others around you should be.

You can't force somebody to do something that they don't want to do beyond their will. But what you can do is you can be the best version of yourself and hope that in turn, people that are watching you and people that are seeing you and people that come in contact with you and people that know you are going to in turn go the direction that they see you going because you've shined so much light and you've been such a good example for them that being the lighthouse has shown them the way they should go and takes them to safety. And all of that shining is your true self and the best way that you can help others around you. It's just like the quote, you have to be the change that you want to see in the world. Well, if you want to see others around you

becoming the best version of themselves, helping others around them, helping change the world, well, then you need to make sure that you become the best version of yourself and make sure that you are a lighthouse and that you shine and you are the best version of yourself as an example for everyone else to follow. So that's what I wanted to leave you with today, just a very short episode to talk about the difference between being a towboat and a lighthouse. If you're a towboat, I completely understand it. It's just some of the ways that some of us love and try to help others around us,

but we have to make sure that we try to shift our focus to just being the lighthouse and being the best version of ourselves to be an example of what others should be as well. So I'll leave you with that. be as well. So I'll leave you with that. And the last thing that I'll leave you with, make it your mission today to make somebody else's day better. I appreciate you listening to this episode. If you like it, please share it with a friend that you think would be able to get some benefit from it.

And also, if you haven't, please subscribe to us on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud. I hope that you have an absolute amazing day. And so that is it. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you like what you hear, please share with a friend, spread the love if you think it's something they could benefit from. If you want the show notes from today, you can get it at mwfmotivation.com, which is also where you can download our free ebook, which is called Hack Your Goals, The Step-by-Step Process to Achieving Success. And if you want to keep in touch with us, you can follow us on Facebook or Instagram. Both of those are at mwfmotivation. And if you like what we have, please subscribe to us on iTunes, Stitcher, or SoundCloud, because we make it our mission to give you as much valuable stuff as possible.

But thank you so much again for listening, and I hope you have an amazing day. Outro Music